Our team interviewed three individuals from three different countries on the topic of endangered animals. Read through each interview to see our questions and their answers.

      Dr. Mike Cranfield, Project Director, MGVP Project, USA / Rwanda

      Mr. Hector Nieba, Park Ranger, Calilegua National Park, Argentina

      Ms. Andrea Bizzaro, Manager, Bush Company, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

Dr. Cranfield received his veterinary degree and completed a residency in zoo animal medicine and pathology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He joined the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) as project director in 1998 and is also the director of animal management, research and conservation at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Dr. Cranfield holds appointments at The Johns Hopkins Department of Comparative Medicine, the University of Maryland and the University of Mississippi. MGVP provides much needed health care to the highly endangered mountain gorillas in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of few conservation programs in the world to provide health care and treatment to an endangered species in its natural habitat.

The Confiscated Gorilla Interim Quarantine Facility (IQF) is a joint effort striving to rehabilitate confiscated gorilla orphans and return them successfully to their wild homes.

A partnership of government institutions and non-governmental conservation organizations, is providing care for one mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and six Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) in a secure, isolated facility in Rwanda. All were orphaned in the wild as a result of poaching activity.

Gorillas in central Africa are being poached for the live animal trade; others are killed as a result of illegal hunting. As a small group, the orphans will help socialize each other, giving them a chance to lead normal gorilla lives in the future. The partner organizations are exploring all options for their eventual reintroduction to the wild: the mountain gorilla back to the Virunga Massif, and the Grauer's gorillas back to the lowlands of DRC.

Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP)
MGVP was established in 1986 as the first organization of its kind, providing veterinary care for wild mountain gorillas - in the forest. The Project has grown from one field veterinarian based in Rwanda, to a staff of 7 veterinarians spread across the region.

MGVP's mission is to monitor the health of the wild mountain gorilla population, provide veterinary care as needed, conduct relevant health studies, and disseminate information.

Most recently, the project has assumed a new responsibility: the care and potential reintroduction of confiscated orphan gorillas.

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI)
DFGFI is dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitat in Africa by promoting continued research on their threatened ecosystems and education about their relevance to the world in which we live. In collaboration with government agencies and other international partners, they also provide assistance to local communities through education, training and economic initiatives.

The Rwandan Tourism and National Parks Office (ORTPN)
ORTPN is the institution responsible for managing Rwanda 's national parks and wildlife. They aim to conserve the rich biodiversity and values of Rwanda 's protected areas and to promote tourism.

The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN)
ICCN is the institution responsible for managing protected areas and biodiversity the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mission is to manage and conserve biodiversity in to support and promote scientific research, ecotourism development, and to integrate conservation into community development.

Every gorilla matters. In central Africa, gorillas are at risk for injury or illness as a result of poaching activity (snares) as well as the introduction of diseases from humans, other wildlife, or domestic animals. Although mountain gorilla populations are gradually increasing in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC, the roughly 700 individuals remain a fragile population. The loss of even a few individuals impacts their families, social groups, populations and genetic diversity.

The Grauer's gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are far more numerous, but their populations appear to be in steady decline, largely a result of human activity. As a result, the MGVP and DFGFI have recently begun to apply their expertise developed with mountain gorillas to Grauer's gorillas. The same forces that drove mountain gorillas to the brink of extinction - war, habitat destruction, poaching and human disease - are taking a terrible toll on Grauer's gorillas. No one knows how many remain, but their numbers are certainly declining. Only a dedicated, collaborative conservation program can reverse that trend. The MGVP and DFGFI, together with national parks and other partners, are part of that effort.

No mountain gorilla orphans have survived return to a non-natal group in the wild. The partnership therefore decided to attempt a novel strategy: to return the young female mountain gorilla, Maisha, to the wild at a time when she will be at or near reproductive age. The hope is that a wild family group in her natural habitat - the Virunga Massif - will accept her back. She is currently the only mountain gorilla in captivity anywhere in the world, and the partners consider this situation temporary. The goal is to return her to the wild within the next two years. If successful, and Maisha breeds, her reintroduction will add to the numbers of wild mountain gorilla populations.

Central to this effort is the need for Maisha to develop normal gorilla social skills and behaviors. She can only do this with other gorillas, and so the orphan Grauer's gorillas have become her surrogate family. Both types of gorilla are very closely related - they are the same species, and only differ at the subspecies level.

Bringing the orphans together will help them all continue their recovery from the trauma of poaching, as they can grow and learn in a stimulating social environment, and be less dependent on their human caregivers. We hope that once security returns to the eastern DRC, the Grauer's gorillas can also be returned to their natural habitat. The MGVP and DFGFI are working closely with ORTPN, ICCN, and other partners to make this vision a reality. We hope that the eventual return of all six Grauer's orphans to a safe place in the wild will be a significant contribution to the long term survival of this lesser known subspecies of gorillas.

Help end the trade in wild gorillas. Discourage the notion that great apes make good pets by not supporting companies that exploit baby great apes in advertising. Though many of these advertising apes are legally owned, and legally used in marketing, their use popularizes the image of great apes as pets and contributes to the illegal trade and trafficking of wild captured infants like those we are caring for.

Help protect gorilla habitat. Do all you can to conserve resources at home. Tropical hardwoods and some metals used in cell phones are among the many natural resources often extracted illegally in some gorilla range countries. Their use, along with the extraction of many other natural resources, contributes to habitat loss and poaching of gorillas and many other animals in Central Africa.

Help us get these gorillas back to the wild. Caring for young gorillas properly is an expensive and time consuming effort. MGVP, DFGFI, ORTPN, and ICCN have committed to and invested resources for this project because we know the survival of these gorillas is important. Other supporters of this project include: the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Partners in Conservation (PIC), Sea World-Busch Gardens, and Endangered.

All the photos © MGVP